“Alhamdulillah, he is getting his day in court after so long together with another Malaysian. We have been waiting for this, as detaining someone for so long without trial is very unfair,” said a family spokesman who requested not to be named.
“We will pray to God that his case will be cleared and he can return to be with the family. Fifteen years is just too long. His mother who died in 2009 was pining for him before she passed on,” he told FMT when contacted.
He hoped that whatever the decision, Nazir will be brought back to Malaysia and not left languishing in the tough, US-controlled Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.
It was reported earlier that the two Malaysian terror suspects are to be indicted tomorrow at the United States Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for charges linked to deadly bombings in Indonesia more than 19 years ago.
Nazir and Mohammed Farik Amin have been detained in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba since 2006, together with Indonesian Encep Nurjaman, also known as Hambali, who is said to be the mastermind of the bombings.
According to a charge sheet uploaded by the US Office of Military Commissions, Nazir and Farik face nine charges, while Hambali faces eight, in relation to their alleged roles in the terrorist attacks in Bali in November 2002 and Jakarta in August 2003.
Counter-terrorism expert Ahmad El-Muhammady, an assistant professor at the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation (Istac), who has been pushing for the two to be tried as soon as possible, welcomed the move although saying it should have come sooner.
He said it will be an opportunity for the defendants to tell their side of the story, and explain their alleged involvement in activities that threatened the US.
“This trial should have taken place a long time ago. It has done so much damage to the US reputation as the defender of human rights. The Guantanamo prison facility was a big stain in the history of human rights,” he told FMT.
Ahmad believed that the trial will produce a positive outcome for the detainees and the US, as it will give a definitive answer and outcome to the defendants.
“I believe that President Joe Biden is committed to put a closure to this episode and move on to a more important agenda. Biden inherited this problem from his predecessors,” he said.
Ahmad added that it would be better for them to be repatriated and to serve their sentences in their home countries given the possible closure of Guantanamo.
“Malaysia and Indonesia have vast experience in handling high-value detainees,” he said.
Previously, Malaysia’s counter-terrorism chief Normah Ishak had welcomed the US decision to charge them, saying justice would be served by trial proceedings.